I believe purely in the big bang, even though spontaneity is often criticized by philosophers. As for where life came from, I think that a meteorite containing small life specimens, like maybe bacteria, crashed onto Earth into the water, which is how the earliest forms of life came from. As for where the supposed life forms on that meteorite came from, who knows? The fact that strands of DNA can come to existence from abiotic materials seems sketchy and denies the Law of Entropy, but perhaps spontaneity is omnipresent. From these microorganisms, humans came through the process of evolution. Some organisms were born with genetic mutations, and those with advantageous variations lived longer than their peers without the variation. Gradually these bacteria evolved to become fish, birds, reptiles, mammals, and so forth. Somewhere along the way the modern day Homo sapiens came, which scientists speculate owe their existence to the introduction of grass. That's right, grass. I think that because there was grass, and trees were scattered more sparsely, that our hominid ancestors were forced to walk upright and run distances, which eventually led to the modern day human.
On a spiritual level, I think that evil is present because of karma. I believe that what goes around comes back around. All the evil energy inflicted on a person has to go somewhere, and all good and bad energy is cyclical. If you do good things, good things happen to you in return. I also think that there is evil so we can experience the good. For example, if there was no suffering in the world at all, we would not be able to appreciate bliss. Everything would be dull and boring and the same. On a scientific level, I think that there is "evil" because of symbiotic relationships between organisms. For example, let's talk about sickness. In most cases, a person becomes ill when a bacterium, fungus, etc. takes host in their body. For the microorganism, this is great! They have a warm, safe, moist place to reside and reproduce. But for the sick person, this is awful! This specifically exemplifies parasitism. Another example is a lion killing a gazelle. Sure, that gazelle suffered a bloody and painful death, but at least the lion has food to eat!
I believe that you should treat others the way you want to be treated. The most important thing to do is to put yourself in other people's shoes first. Everybody suffers at some point in their life, so just be nice to them because you don't know all that they've been through. And don't kill. I think that's a given for most people, but in my view that's one of the worst things you can do. That, or order someone else to kill a person. Or watch a person kill someone without intervening. Basically, don't inflict harm on others, and when others are suffering, try to help them as much as you can. Altruism is one of the most important traits there is, so always stick to it.
I believe in the human soul. I think that after you die, your soul exits your now-dead body and can go a different number of paths. You can reincarnate as another human or animal if you were an okay person, or if you did many good things, you can go to heaven. Whereas if you committed many atrocious acts, you can go to hell.
Celine: Hello guru. Is it true that you are an incarnate of Brahman?
Guru: Yes, I am.
Celine: Can I ask you a few questions?
Guru: Of course!
Celine: Okay. First of all, not to boast or anything, but I think I'm a pretty good person. I mean, I'm nice to my family, friends, teachers, you name it. And I've never intentionally done anything bad. I mean, I might have stepped on some ants, but that was an accident. So why have bad things been happening to me? Since my actions were good, shouldn't I receive good karma instead of bad karma?
Guru: Karma consists of all the good and bad energy in the entire universe. So whenever any person in the universe does something bad, bad karma will be thrown out and can hit any other person, even if that person's actions are "good".
Celine: Ah. Thank you. Secondly, I'm kind of struggling to find out my purpose in life right now, which is making me really unmotivated. So really what am I supposed to do in life?
Guru: Your purpose in life is to fulfill your dharma, which is duty and responsibility. Your dharma depends on your caste, your life stage, and the yoga you choose to do. But, the caste system does not exist for you, so just focus on your life stage and yoga. You are a student, I presume?
Celine: Yes, your Holiness.
Guru: Excellent. As a pupil, your sole duty is to learn. Do not be distracted from your learning either. This means no drugs or alcohol. And no dating.
Celine: <thinks> Darn it.
Guru: And then you have your yoga. You're actually doing karma yoga right now with the community service you're completing at Berkeley's summer camps.
Celine: Sweet. I guess service hours are more fulfilling than I'd expected!
Guru: That's right. Any other questions?
Celine: Yes, just one more. So...uh, I have this, um, thanatophobia...
Guru: Ah, the fear of dying. One of the most common fears.
Celine: <winces> Yeah, I'm just really scared and unsure about what lays ahead. I know that everybody reincarnates, but it still makes me kind of sad. I won't be the same me.
Guru: You need to relinquish your jiva, or temporary and human self, when the time comes. Embrace your atman, the divine part of your soul that is also a part of me, Brahman. Fear not, because everything and everyone is Brahman. And also, didn't you learn about this in the Bhagavad Gita during summer religion class?
Celine:....Yeah.. wait, how do you know?
Guru: I am Brahman, Celine. I am everywhere. <disappears> Farewell.
What was it like to be mindful? Why? Was it hard? Easy? Did you notice any particular thoughts to be repetitive? Be thoughtful and detailed.
I am 99% sure that I did not do the mindfulness correctly, and here is why. I am a Buddhist and have "tried" mindfulness and meditation before and have derived a sense of serenity from it. Although I had not done it for a while I was excited to find out our homework was to practice mindfulness. I expected it to be relaxing, but instead I found it to have no immediate positive effect on me whatsoever. On the first day I did it at night after a particularly long day. It did help me to wind down, because I concentrated on my breathing, but for some reason I felt very anxious the entire time. I could not concentrate because I kept on anticipating the end of those five minutes. I had an aching urge to pick up my phone and check the time, and scolded myself for being so impatient and dependent on my phone in just a few minutes, which made me anxious again. It was a vicious cycle. Then I became anxious thinking about what I would write for my journal entry about the mindfulness. But I tried to concentrate on my breathing and just let my eyes glaze over my room, which helped ease the anxiety. It was very strange to consciously try to be in the present moment and take note of my thoughts. And then the five minutes were up, and something strange happened. I didn't want to get up to silence my phone, didn't want to leave my state of mindfulness. Because for the first time in a long time, I felt relaxed. But then again, it could have been confirmation bias. I could have just assumed I was relaxed because of the prior knowledge that mindfulness was scientifically proven to be beneficial. Either way, after the first day, I thought, "This is nice." But on the second day my results were not so great. I cleared my thoughts, leaving nothing but an obnoxious song stuck in my head. After a few seconds I stated getting really bored. I drummed my fingers on the table and tried to control my breathing. Even still, I was anxious with thoughts of anticipation. I started thinking about what Upper Division would be like. When would five minutes be over? After what seemed like ages five minutes was up, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally it was over. But I felt guilty. What happened? I asked myself. This was not how I was supposed to feel after mindfulness. I was supposed to feel relaxed afterwards, not feel relieved it was over. The third and last day was the worst. Since it was a Sunday, my mind was flooded with anxious thoughts on class the next day, anticipating what would happen tomorrow. And I thought again about what I would write in my journal entry about my experiences. Then I became anxious in anticipation of when the timer would announce five minutes was up. It was too silent, and I didn't want to be startled by the timer-argh! Why couldn't I just relax?! I also had a steady stream of ancient Greek/Macedonian lyre music playing in my head (don't ask why). Finally five minutes was over and I felt like a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders. From this experience, I deduced two things about mindfulness:1), that mindfulness is actually great for the body and leaves you feeling very serene and complete. Many times we blame our environment for our stress and hope that by going on a vacation, say to the Caribbean's, we can relax at last. While a nice vacation definitely wouldn't hurt, just five minutes of mindfulness-doing absolutely nothing and paying attention to your thoughts-can help you to relax. 2), mindfulness is only effective if you do it voluntarily. When you are told to do it because it is homework, it seems more like a chore and causes more anxiety. I think that's why I was so anticipative and relieved when it was over, because to my subconscious it was like, "Yay, you finally completed your assignment!" To conclude, I think voluntarily practicing mindfulness is not as difficult and brings pleasure and tranquility, but involuntarily practicing mindfulness makes it seem tedious and stressful. This actually applies to a lot of things like work, studying, and practicing a sport or musical instrument. If you like something, you will voluntarily do it without someone ordering you to, and vice versa.
If I were God, I would give Moses almost the exact same Ten Commandments, but I would make some slight changes. Instead of saying how one should not commit blasphemy, commit adultery, and steal, I would make one commandment in their places that says that one must be aware of their actions and speech and not inflict upon others what they would not want upon themselves. I believe that deep down, humans can distinguish between right and wrong and should not inflict harm on others. I would also change the Sixth Commandment from "You shall not murder" to "You shall not kill". Murder implies killing someone without justice or a valid excuse. That means that you could still kill someone, such as in vengeance for that person committing murder. I believe that killing anybody is a sin. Even if someone committed murder, killing them would not make you any better than them. Other than those, I would leave the Ten Commandments as is. Although I had a little trouble figuring out the religious moral of the Great Banquet Parable, I think the secular moral is to be grateful of the chances you are given and to not take things for granted. The people invited to the party kept on making excuses, leaving the master with no guests at the banquet. The invitees did not stop to think how fortunate they were that they were invited to the banquet. And so the master invited all of the homeless and poor people to the banquet instead. One experience that made me think of this parable actually occurred today. My mother persuaded me to go to the Zoomination lantern festival at Lowry Park Zoo because it was a "once in a lifetime opportunity. Even people in China don't get opportunities like this, she said. I admit, I did not want to go at all. I knew I would probably get bored instantly and refused to go at first. Unlike the invitees in the parable, I didn't even make up a good excuse. I just said I didn't want to go. But eventually my mother forced me to go, but throughout the entire time I was there I just wanted to go home (I should mention I get bored really easily). It wasn't until after I got home that I realized what a good chance I just wasted. There are people in China who wished they could have had my experience of seeing the beautiful lights but cannot because of overcrowding and pollution, which probably lessened the quality of the lights. I know now that I have to embrace every opportunity I have, because there are people less fortunate than I who are just not given opportunities like this.
Disclaimer: The opinions of this topic belong to a fourteen year old school girl who, while often complains about ignorance and prejudice of others, is most likely biased herself due to outward influences like *cough* media. And a lot of these opinions are probably not true. So don't take this too seriously.
Goodness gracious, this is a topic I am very passionate about, so I will try my best not to ramble on and on. To start, prejudice and ignorance are two of my top pet peeves. I believe that certain prejudice is sadly innate, due to our animal instincts to be wary of those who are "different" from us, which mostly refers to outer appearance, but translates to culture and religion. But the innate prejudice is minimal and usually does not cause us violence and hatred. There is also learned ignorance, which can be influenced by media, the family we grew up in, the country we grew up in, etc. This type of prejudice is my pet peeve. This type of prejudice is caused by ignorance. It is when we douse innate prejudice with ignorance that it festers and grows into the "learned" prejudice, which leads to hatred and violence. Ignorance is caused by lack of knowledge. Honestly, whenever I see or hear people make ignorant statements, I want to throw a textbook at them, or present a 50-slide powerpoint about the subject at hand. But the problem with textbooks is...they're biased! While authors try to deliver the material in an objective manner, many times the information is still one-sided from the learned prejudice of the authors. For example, many people argue that school books are "whitewashing" history. There is also debate over teaching kids evolution vs. creationism. To become less ignorant, we must open our minds and express a desire to learn. Wait, I'm starting to answer the second part of the question! Let's rewind. I DO NOT believe that the impressions of Islam in the United States is fair. As the 30 Days video (which I happened to enjoy very much) said, Islamophobia in America really ignited when the 9/11 terrorist attack occurred. Americans were shocked that some foreign guys would come in and kill thousands of our citizens. The media was on fire. People's learned prejudice against Muslims grew. From then on, Americans would have the stereotype of all Muslims being terrorists, all because of the actions of a few cruel, idiotic, and selfish guys. Nowadays, most Americans associate terrorism with Islam, and vice versa, because of 9/11. But get this: America grew to the size it is now by invading the Native Americans' land and killing them off with biological warfare. These days, do you see Native Americans committing hate crimes against white people? It just seems very hypocritical. I'm not saying that white people are evil. And I'm not saying I support the 5 bigots who crashed into the Twin Towers. I'm just saying that I do not like how Americans are releasing their angst on innocent Muslims. There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. It's not like they all teamed up with bin Laden and came up with this plan to terrorize America. There are extremists in every race and religion. There are radical Buddhists who destroy Muslim mosques. And remember the KKK, the Protestant-led gang who terrorized African Americans? Secondly, it's just selfish to discriminate against Muslims, and people of any race or religion. I think it's really important to put yourself in other people's shoes. Today while I was watching the video, it really occurred to me how much people in the majority, like whites and Christians, do not realize how privileged they are. Being the majority and advantageous group in a racist system, sometimes they do not realize how lucky they are to not be discriminated against. Even for me, being a minority, I still feel very foreign and out of place in public. Perhaps that could also be caused by adolescent egocentrism, but you get the point. As for how we can change this misconception of Islam in America, there are two essential steps: one, we must get rid of our bias. Forget whatever you may have heard about Muslims on TV, or on social media. The media is not 100% correct all the time. Two, we must ebb away our ignorance. We must open our minds and be willing to learn. That is why education is so important. I was shocked that the man in the 30 Days video did not know that the God in Islam and Christianity were the same. That was something I learned in seventh grade. Once we gain more knowledge of each other, we can understand each other better and realize that we are actually very much like each other after all.
I believe purely in the big bang, even though spontaneity is often criticized by philosophers. As for where life came from, I think that a meteorite containing small life specimens, like maybe bacteria, crashed onto Earth into the water, which is how the earliest forms of life came from. As for where the supposed life forms on that meteorite came from, who knows? The fact that strands of DNA can come to existence from abiotic materials seems sketchy and denies the Law of Entropy, but perhaps spontaneity is omnipresent. From these microorganisms, humans came through the process of evolution. Some organisms were born with genetic mutations, and those with advantageous variations lived longer than their peers without the variation. Gradually these bacteria evolved to become fish, birds, reptiles, mammals, and so forth. Somewhere along the way the modern day Homo sapiens came, which scientists speculate owe their existence to the introduction of grass. That's right, grass. I think that because there was grass, and trees were scattered more sparsely, that our hominid ancestors were forced to walk upright and run distances, which eventually led to the modern day human.
On a spiritual level, I think that evil is present because of karma. I believe that what goes around comes back around. All the evil energy inflicted on a person has to go somewhere, and all good and bad energy is cyclical. If you do good things, good things happen to you in return. I also think that there is evil so we can experience the good. For example, if there was no suffering in the world at all, we would not be able to appreciate bliss. Everything would be dull and boring and the same. On a scientific level, I think that there is "evil" because of symbiotic relationships between organisms. For example, let's talk about sickness. In most cases, a person becomes ill when a bacterium, fungus, etc. takes host in their body. For the microorganism, this is great! They have a warm, safe, moist place to reside and reproduce. But for the sick person, this is awful! This specifically exemplifies parasitism. Another example is a lion killing a gazelle. Sure, that gazelle suffered a bloody and painful death, but at least the lion has food to eat!
I believe that you should treat others the way you want to be treated. The most important thing to do is to put yourself in other people's shoes first. Everybody suffers at some point in their life, so just be nice to them because you don't know all that they've been through. And don't kill. I think that's a given for most people, but in my view that's one of the worst things you can do. That, or order someone else to kill a person. Or watch a person kill someone without intervening. Basically, don't inflict harm on others, and when others are suffering, try to help them as much as you can. Altruism is one of the most important traits there is, so always stick to it.
I believe in the human soul. I think that after you die, your soul exits your now-dead body and can go a different number of paths. You can reincarnate as another human or animal if you were an okay person, or if you did many good things, you can go to heaven. Whereas if you committed many atrocious acts, you can go to hell.
Celine: Hello guru. Is it true that you are an incarnate of Brahman?
Guru: Yes, I am.
Celine: Can I ask you a few questions?
Guru: Of course!
Celine: Okay. First of all, not to boast or anything, but I think I'm a pretty good person. I mean, I'm nice to my family, friends, teachers, you name it. And I've never intentionally done anything bad. I mean, I might have stepped on some ants, but that was an accident. So why have bad things been happening to me? Since my actions were good, shouldn't I receive good karma instead of bad karma?
Guru: Karma consists of all the good and bad energy in the entire universe. So whenever any person in the universe does something bad, bad karma will be thrown out and can hit any other person, even if that person's actions are "good".
Celine: Ah. Thank you. Secondly, I'm kind of struggling to find out my purpose in life right now, which is making me really unmotivated. So really what am I supposed to do in life?
Guru: Your purpose in life is to fulfill your dharma, which is duty and responsibility. Your dharma depends on your caste, your life stage, and the yoga you choose to do. But, the caste system does not exist for you, so just focus on your life stage and yoga. You are a student, I presume?
Celine: Yes, your Holiness.
Guru: Excellent. As a pupil, your sole duty is to learn. Do not be distracted from your learning either. This means no drugs or alcohol. And no dating.
Celine: <thinks> Darn it.
Guru: And then you have your yoga. You're actually doing karma yoga right now with the community service you're completing at Berkeley's summer camps.
Celine: Sweet. I guess service hours are more fulfilling than I'd expected!
Guru: That's right. Any other questions?
Celine: Yes, just one more. So...uh, I have this, um, thanatophobia...
Guru: Ah, the fear of dying. One of the most common fears.
Celine: <winces> Yeah, I'm just really scared and unsure about what lays ahead. I know that everybody reincarnates, but it still makes me kind of sad. I won't be the same me.
Guru: You need to relinquish your jiva, or temporary and human self, when the time comes. Embrace your atman, the divine part of your soul that is also a part of me, Brahman. Fear not, because everything and everyone is Brahman. And also, didn't you learn about this in the Bhagavad Gita during summer religion class?
Celine:....Yeah.. wait, how do you know?
Guru: I am Brahman, Celine. I am everywhere. <disappears> Farewell.
What was it like to be mindful? Why? Was it hard? Easy? Did you notice any particular thoughts to be repetitive? Be thoughtful and detailed.
I am 99% sure that I did not do the mindfulness correctly, and here is why. I am a Buddhist and have "tried" mindfulness and meditation before and have derived a sense of serenity from it. Although I had not done it for a while I was excited to find out our homework was to practice mindfulness. I expected it to be relaxing, but instead I found it to have no immediate positive effect on me whatsoever. On the first day I did it at night after a particularly long day. It did help me to wind down, because I concentrated on my breathing, but for some reason I felt very anxious the entire time. I could not concentrate because I kept on anticipating the end of those five minutes. I had an aching urge to pick up my phone and check the time, and scolded myself for being so impatient and dependent on my phone in just a few minutes, which made me anxious again. It was a vicious cycle. Then I became anxious thinking about what I would write for my journal entry about the mindfulness. But I tried to concentrate on my breathing and just let my eyes glaze over my room, which helped ease the anxiety. It was very strange to consciously try to be in the present moment and take note of my thoughts. And then the five minutes were up, and something strange happened. I didn't want to get up to silence my phone, didn't want to leave my state of mindfulness. Because for the first time in a long time, I felt relaxed. But then again, it could have been confirmation bias. I could have just assumed I was relaxed because of the prior knowledge that mindfulness was scientifically proven to be beneficial. Either way, after the first day, I thought, "This is nice." But on the second day my results were not so great. I cleared my thoughts, leaving nothing but an obnoxious song stuck in my head. After a few seconds I stated getting really bored. I drummed my fingers on the table and tried to control my breathing. Even still, I was anxious with thoughts of anticipation. I started thinking about what Upper Division would be like. When would five minutes be over? After what seemed like ages five minutes was up, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally it was over. But I felt guilty. What happened? I asked myself. This was not how I was supposed to feel after mindfulness. I was supposed to feel relaxed afterwards, not feel relieved it was over. The third and last day was the worst. Since it was a Sunday, my mind was flooded with anxious thoughts on class the next day, anticipating what would happen tomorrow. And I thought again about what I would write in my journal entry about my experiences. Then I became anxious in anticipation of when the timer would announce five minutes was up. It was too silent, and I didn't want to be startled by the timer-argh! Why couldn't I just relax?! I also had a steady stream of ancient Greek/Macedonian lyre music playing in my head (don't ask why). Finally five minutes was over and I felt like a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders. From this experience, I deduced two things about mindfulness:1), that mindfulness is actually great for the body and leaves you feeling very serene and complete. Many times we blame our environment for our stress and hope that by going on a vacation, say to the Caribbean's, we can relax at last. While a nice vacation definitely wouldn't hurt, just five minutes of mindfulness-doing absolutely nothing and paying attention to your thoughts-can help you to relax. 2), mindfulness is only effective if you do it voluntarily. When you are told to do it because it is homework, it seems more like a chore and causes more anxiety. I think that's why I was so anticipative and relieved when it was over, because to my subconscious it was like, "Yay, you finally completed your assignment!" To conclude, I think voluntarily practicing mindfulness is not as difficult and brings pleasure and tranquility, but involuntarily practicing mindfulness makes it seem tedious and stressful. This actually applies to a lot of things like work, studying, and practicing a sport or musical instrument. If you like something, you will voluntarily do it without someone ordering you to, and vice versa.
If I were God, I would give Moses almost the exact same Ten Commandments, but I would make some slight changes. Instead of saying how one should not commit blasphemy, commit adultery, and steal, I would make one commandment in their places that says that one must be aware of their actions and speech and not inflict upon others what they would not want upon themselves. I believe that deep down, humans can distinguish between right and wrong and should not inflict harm on others. I would also change the Sixth Commandment from "You shall not murder" to "You shall not kill". Murder implies killing someone without justice or a valid excuse. That means that you could still kill someone, such as in vengeance for that person committing murder. I believe that killing anybody is a sin. Even if someone committed murder, killing them would not make you any better than them. Other than those, I would leave the Ten Commandments as is.
Although I had a little trouble figuring out the religious moral of the Great Banquet Parable, I think the secular moral is to be grateful of the chances you are given and to not take things for granted. The people invited to the party kept on making excuses, leaving the master with no guests at the banquet. The invitees did not stop to think how fortunate they were that they were invited to the banquet. And so the master invited all of the homeless and poor people to the banquet instead. One experience that made me think of this parable actually occurred today. My mother persuaded me to go to the Zoomination lantern festival at Lowry Park Zoo because it was a "once in a lifetime opportunity. Even people in China don't get opportunities like this, she said. I admit, I did not want to go at all. I knew I would probably get bored instantly and refused to go at first. Unlike the invitees in the parable, I didn't even make up a good excuse. I just said I didn't want to go. But eventually my mother forced me to go, but throughout the entire time I was there I just wanted to go home (I should mention I get bored really easily). It wasn't until after I got home that I realized what a good chance I just wasted. There are people in China who wished they could have had my experience of seeing the beautiful lights but cannot because of overcrowding and pollution, which probably lessened the quality of the lights. I know now that I have to embrace every opportunity I have, because there are people less fortunate than I who are just not given opportunities like this.
Disclaimer: The opinions of this topic belong to a fourteen year old school girl who, while often complains about ignorance and prejudice of others, is most likely biased herself due to outward influences like *cough* media. And a lot of these opinions are probably not true. So don't take this too seriously.
Goodness gracious, this is a topic I am very passionate about, so I will try my best not to ramble on and on. To start, prejudice and ignorance are two of my top pet peeves. I believe that certain prejudice is sadly innate, due to our animal instincts to be wary of those who are "different" from us, which mostly refers to outer appearance, but translates to culture and religion. But the innate prejudice is minimal and usually does not cause us violence and hatred. There is also learned ignorance, which can be influenced by media, the family we grew up in, the country we grew up in, etc. This type of prejudice is my pet peeve. This type of prejudice is caused by ignorance. It is when we douse innate prejudice with ignorance that it festers and grows into the "learned" prejudice, which leads to hatred and violence. Ignorance is caused by lack of knowledge. Honestly, whenever I see or hear people make ignorant statements, I want to throw a textbook at them, or present a 50-slide powerpoint about the subject at hand. But the problem with textbooks is...they're biased! While authors try to deliver the material in an objective manner, many times the information is still one-sided from the learned prejudice of the authors. For example, many people argue that school books are "whitewashing" history. There is also debate over teaching kids evolution vs. creationism. To become less ignorant, we must open our minds and express a desire to learn. Wait, I'm starting to answer the second part of the question! Let's rewind. I DO NOT believe that the impressions of Islam in the United States is fair. As the 30 Days video (which I happened to enjoy very much) said, Islamophobia in America really ignited when the 9/11 terrorist attack occurred. Americans were shocked that some foreign guys would come in and kill thousands of our citizens. The media was on fire. People's learned prejudice against Muslims grew. From then on, Americans would have the stereotype of all Muslims being terrorists, all because of the actions of a few cruel, idiotic, and selfish guys. Nowadays, most Americans associate terrorism with Islam, and vice versa, because of 9/11. But get this: America grew to the size it is now by invading the Native Americans' land and killing them off with biological warfare. These days, do you see Native Americans committing hate crimes against white people? It just seems very hypocritical. I'm not saying that white people are evil. And I'm not saying I support the 5 bigots who crashed into the Twin Towers. I'm just saying that I do not like how Americans are releasing their angst on innocent Muslims. There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. It's not like they all teamed up with bin Laden and came up with this plan to terrorize America. There are extremists in every race and religion. There are radical Buddhists who destroy Muslim mosques. And remember the KKK, the Protestant-led gang who terrorized African Americans? Secondly, it's just selfish to discriminate against Muslims, and people of any race or religion. I think it's really important to put yourself in other people's shoes. Today while I was watching the video, it really occurred to me how much people in the majority, like whites and Christians, do not realize how privileged they are. Being the majority and advantageous group in a racist system, sometimes they do not realize how lucky they are to not be discriminated against. Even for me, being a minority, I still feel very foreign and out of place in public. Perhaps that could also be caused by adolescent egocentrism, but you get the point. As for how we can change this misconception of Islam in America, there are two essential steps: one, we must get rid of our bias. Forget whatever you may have heard about Muslims on TV, or on social media. The media is not 100% correct all the time. Two, we must ebb away our ignorance. We must open our minds and be willing to learn. That is why education is so important. I was shocked that the man in the 30 Days video did not know that the God in Islam and Christianity were the same. That was something I learned in seventh grade. Once we gain more knowledge of each other, we can understand each other better and realize that we are actually very much like each other after all.